I cooked the chicken last night. The packet held 4 breast halves. I cut up one into strips and made "chicken tenders" - served it last night with salad and corn. Packed the leftover chicken tenders and corn, with carrot sticks, grapes and a fuyu persimmon, bento style, for her lunch. That merited a bear hug from her!

Sauted the remaining chicken with teriyaki sauce for future meals.

Made stock with the bones and skins (skins will be fed to the kitties; stock will be made into soup).

BL: Great price on the ramen noodles! I haven't seen a sale price like that here in quite some time.

Bless, sounds yummy! We did a "salad bar" tonight, and for future nights, I'd prefer to bake and freeze homemade chicken strips or popcorn chicken bits. I noticed that the breading on the packaged stuff I picked up gave me headaches, and the little girls picked all the breading off entirely. They don't do that with the homemade kind.

Saturday after my big stock-up, I did take the time to slice up a London Broil steak, and froze that in a soy-ginger-garlic marinade, so we can do Mongolian beef at some point in the next two weeks.

I think the meal plans this week are really working for the family. The tamales I made on Sunday were a hit, and the excess are in the freezer, so what was planned for one meal will actually end up being two dinners and probably two lunches, also, extending my grocery and time investment quite a lot.

Liz and Bless, the sale on the noodles was why I stocked up. I have actually used them in a bind, to make lasagna! I just split them apart out of the package and layered them uncooked between the meats and cheeses. Tasted just as good with a lot less mess. And for the price, I may just head over there for some more.

When I make dinner for myself, I only use a half of a package of the noodles so used the second half last nite with some stewed tomatoes, spinach and some more shrimp and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese for a quick cheap dinner.


Liz, RE:DBF, he is learning!!He has told me he hates any kind of squash. While talking, I found out that he hasn't even dented the surface in exploring cooking methods, so my new mission is to get him to try new things!

I'm clearing out some room in our freezer. Since Sunday I have used two roasts, cooked at the same time. We had leftovers from that on Monday. Yesterday I used up the rest of the homemade frozen waffles and pancakes. That cleared out another spot in the freezer. YEAH!

The kids helped a couple of weeks ago to put away some of the groceries. DH and I both remembered buying a two pack of peanut butter from our warehouse store. We could not find it, even after searching the upstairs pantry and the downstairs storage areas. All of a sudden Little Miss jumped down from the table and ran to her bedroom. We heard the closet door open and as she approached the dining room there was a blanket over her arm. Last week DS was playing magician and Little Miss didn't want him to make the peanut butter disappear so she hid it in her closet and covered it with her blanket.

The mystery of the disappearing peanut butter is now solved.

Striving: Too cute about DD and the pb.

Dinner last night was teriyaki chicken (sliced up 1 1/2 of the precooked chicken breasts, added a bit of red bell peppers and some canned pineapple), sauted green beans and rice. Got a high approval rating from DD. I brought the leftovers for my lunch today.

Received this week's grocery ads last night. One store is having store brand sugar on sale, 5 lbs. for $1.99 and store brand all purpose flour on sale, 5 lbs. for $.99 plus they are having various beef roasts (chuck, rump, cross rib) on sale for $1.99/lb. I think I'll buy some now to stock up for holiday baking, etc.

I so enjoy reading what everyone has on here as it gives me ideas for my own planning. Does anyone else really just not like to cook and go grocery shopping or is it just me? I just really don't like either one of them. And living w/DH and two DS's probably doesn't help matters.

I do have a DNephew who loves to cook and eat but it must've come from his mom's (my DSIL) side of the family as my two son's don't want to even help out. I am going to try to get some help with cooking if I can as some nights they are busy with sports and homework.

So far this week for the main dish we've had...
Sunday: bowtie pasta and chicken
Monday: pizza
Tuesday: beef strips

and to finish out the week...
Wed: grilled cheese
Thurs: chicken tenderloins
Fri: hamburgers

Still trying to decide on Sat. Some of our days have to be easy and quick because of sports and that I have to take and pick up at different times.

tyedye: hi, I wonder if a few changes would help to reduce the work. What are you family's favorite foods/dinners? Try to have a quick look at library or book store [older books] before buying for-cheap on-line to see if your family will eat meals suggested in 5 Ingredients or Less recipes or Hate To Cook book [Peg Bracken]. If you have a Crockpot/slo cooker you can combine any meat and veg at hand before leaving for work and return to table ready dinner, the house smells wonderful as a bonus.

Roasting meat & root veggies in the oven on your day off, is truly easy and gives several meals with a tiny bit of planning. In our region the larger supermarkets/grocery chains offer internet shopping. The customer sends an internet list one day in advance of pick-up for a modest service fee + food order. Alternately, if you handed DH a list, do you think he could be persuaded to stick to the list and buy groceries once every two weeks?

The other nice part about doing crock cooking is those leftover meats can be shredded and used for tacos, taco salads, bbq sandwiches, etc.

Turn the attitude around and look for ways to get the kids to participate in the meal planning. Why not have a make your own pizza day using flour tortillas as a base for example. Soup and sandwiches were a staple for dinner on busy nites when I was growing up.

there are lots of things you can do easily and inexpensively....good luck

I don't like to grocery shop or cook daily, that's for sure! I think it's the same as anything else: we enjoy things when they make sense in our lives, and we feel like we can do a good job. If you're not getting help with the meal planning, shopping, or cooking, then I can entirely see why it would feel burdensome! It is!

I second looking for ways to get the family involved in the whole process (and I'm giggling about Mini-Striving and her Peanut Butter Rescue... maybe not *that* kind of involvement...)

Knowing that you need to work around sports schedules (and athletic nutritional needs, too!), what about working up a set of easy-to-make menu options to rotate? That way you don't get burned out on flavors. If you were able to make double batches of soups for a few months, you'll have that second set to put in the freezer. I love that kind of doubling... it's no more effort to make twice the soup, or assemble two casseroles or lasagnas, or roast/grill/crock twice the meat and toss half in the freezer than it is to do up just one night's meal, and it saves me a LOT of time when I do it.

There are some great kid-friendly soups, too. My kids call minestrone "pizza soup"; beef taco soups and chicken taco soups are both really tasty; you can crock-pot a nice chicken and white bean chili, too. Veg-beef is always yummy (vary it with meatballs instead of beef chunks). A friend shared a creamy lemon chicken soup with me this summer that's awfully nice.

A lot of family-friendly meals can be turned into made-at-home meals... my kids all like any meal where it's "build your own", so baked nachos, taco salad, baked potatoes and toppings, salad bar, and Party Food all rate highly.

For us, Party Food means we pull out a selection of raw veg that we typically have in the fridge all the time (pretty standard meal accompaniment or snack for us), slice up a bit of cheese, put out some crackers or bread, and do up some wings, or chicken strips, or sausages (we like kosher beef franks, actually, and it's more cost effective), and add fresh fruit for dessert. It's all very fast, and really tasty.

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Last night we did a big fruit-laden "biscuit" kind of cake--cross between a dense eggy bread and biscuit, anyhow. Lots of fresh (frozen) fruit on top, plus sausage links and milk. Leftovers were eaten for breakfast, along with hot oatmeal.

Tonight's supper was "Reverse Dumplings"... I'm a huge fan of chicken and noodles, chicken and dumplings, or just plain old chicken soup (garlic and carrots and YUM)... but DH acts like I'm punishing him for things if I serve soup. So tonight I did chicken soup, and made biscuits, and "dumpling'd" the soup over the biscuits in the bowl. THAT worked for him. Worked for me, too!

I got a little... creative... with the biscuits. I worked about 1/4 cup butter into the flour, and a 2 ounce knob of cream cheese that was lurking in the cheese drawer of the fridge, and then discovered I was out of buttermilk (DD-14 made pancakes for lunch the other day, when I was out), as well as sweet milk, and I didn't much feel like opening one of my shelf-stable milks, as I only needed half of a package (2 cups), and don't have anything milky planned for a day or two. But, I did have a lurking 1 cup of sour cream... so I beat that smooth with a cup of water, and used that as my liquid. The biscuits (reverse dumplings!) were very nice!

I'm getting in the mood for Chinese food... so tomorrow I think we'll do the Mongolian beef, fried rice, lo-mein, and maybe a few potstickers... though DH and I have been enjoying those four and five at a time as late night snacks, too. Some nights, I'm just in the mood for a few potstickers with Thai chili sauce on them! It'll work best if I go ahead and steam some rice tonight, so it's had time to chill before doing rice tomorrow night.

I finally finished my meal plan. I need to pick up some items from another store tonight. Last night I spent $80, but that also included multi pack of soap, liquid soap, hair detangler, conditioner, shampoo, etc.

I did forget the tissue and toilet paper.

I did pick up 24 cans soda

3 cans of pumpkin
2 cans of chicken broth
2 cans of whole berry cranberries

2 packs of spongey buns, not the good kind as I'm making freezer sandwiches and these don't dry out as fast.

a gallon of milk

turkey (the best buy I could find at .69 cents a pound.)
molasses
flour
sugar

two pounds of cheese
a pound of sliced provolone.

I have a small, but more expensive list of items. This list will provide meals from now until the end of the month. I'm bringing some items to my parents for our traditional feast.

By tonight I'll be able to make the following.

Roast beef pot pie, tossed salad, chocolate pudding.

Chicken, oriental salad, mandarin oranges.

Chili with corn bread

clam chowder, green salad, and biscuits.

Shrimp fettucini alfredo with green salad and garlic bread.

Chicken noodle soup and sandwiches

Jumbo stuffed shells with spinach, cheese and hamburger, salad and green vegetables.

Baked beans with ham and corn bread

Beef stew with biscuits.

Marinated grilled chicken, couscous, broccoli with cheese sauce.

Potato soup and toppings.

Tater tot casserole, vegetables and fruit.

Hamburger soup with blueberry muffins.

Meatballs and gravy over noodles, vegetable sliced fruit.

I have stuff to make a gingersnap pumpkin cheesecake with caramel sauce to bring to my parents house. In addition, we are really weird at my house. My parents will watch the grandchildren, and the four adults will shop on Black Friday for birthday and Christmas gifts. So I'm making egg muffin sandwiches, assorted bagels and fruit to make bag breakfasts for the adults and littles as they awake.

I'll be making cranberry orange muffins, pumpkin muffins and rhubarb. Whatever is left over will be for breakfasts and snacks throughout the weekend.

For lunch, at my house, we will do leftovers.

Breakfasts will be cranberry orange oatmeal, cereal, bagels with cream cheese, toast, yogugt pancakes, strata and burritos.

If I need anything else sweet to make I'll make some lemon bars, or a couple of pumpkin jelly rolls.